A solar-powered fountain will be installed in the college’s Chapel Pond by the end of the 2005-06 academic year. The project is part of a group effort by three students in the college’s environmental studies program.

Seniors Scott Baker and Thomas Nevinger, and junior Chelsea Binkert said, ideally, the fountain will improve the pond’s aesthetics and raise awareness of solar power on campus.

“[We want] the fountain to be just one more demonstration to the college, that sustainability at IC is not just a buzz word, but a movement that is gaining momentum,” Baker said.

At a presentation to the college community Dec. 1, the students discussed the project’s design and construction. The small fountain will work by solar power and spray an average height of five feet, depending on the intensity of the sun.

The energy to power the fountain will be generated by an 8-foot solar panel, which will work by direct current. The panel is sturdy and designed to withstand severe weather conditions, including high winds and hail, Binkert said. Unlike most other solar-powered applications, which run on alternating current and use battery storage back-up, the fountain will work only during the daytime, Nevinger said. This way, observers will see the effect of the energy source.

“That was the idea of the project,” he said. “We wanted to show people that the sun is actually responsible for providing this energy.”

Students first proposed the fountain two years ago after receiving an “Applying Science to Sustainability” grant, provided to the college by the National Science Foundation. After gaining approval last spring, Greg Pitts of Ithaca’s EcoVillage said he and Susan Allen-Gil, associate professor of biology and another supervisor, began designing and planning the fountain this semester. Pitts works for and lives at the EcoVillage, a non-profit organization and living community designed to promote and practice environmental awareness.

The grant was given in 2000 in order to expand environmental and sustainability programs, Pitts said. Nevinger said the approximate cost for the fountain parts was between $1,300 and $1,400.

Pitts and the students will work with the Physical Plant to install the fountain. A public unveiling ceremony will be held in the spring, Pitts said.

Though the energy panel that will power the fountain will not be visible from the Chapel Pond, it will be visible to people entering campus from the main road. The group said it hopes this visibility will help people to be more aware of its project and cause.

In addition, the fountain will provide educational opportunities for biology, physics and environmental studies courses, where students can do hands-on studies. Baker said in the future, the group hopes to build a solar water-quality testing instrument.

“It will be a simple display of what creativity can do with solar power and a hands-on model for how it operates,” he said.

The fountain project began as part of the “Projects in Sustainability” class offered within the environmental studies program. The fountain is now one of four ongoing independent study projects, Binkert said.

She said the projects have been a valuable learning experience. “I’m hoping to continue working with alternative energy projects at [the college] until I graduate,” she said.

Past projects include a water pump and path light system at EcoVillage, which uses solar power to transport water to a flower garden from underground storage tanks, and two mobile solar- powered trailers. One trailer is outside the Center for Natural Sciences. The other, which is larger and used as a back-up generator at EcoVillage, stores up to 12 kilowatt hours of energy, enough to power a household for 12 to 24 hours, Pitts said.